ESSAY

Mind Over Platter

Healing Through Food

By Angie Martinez

There’s a link between food and mental health

that you may only discuss once a year at your annual checkup. The focus is usually on eating fruits and vegetables, along with foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which can positively affect your physical health as well as your mental health and well-being. Well, I can tell you that the whole cabrito I indulged in just a mere two weeks ago, although perhaps affecting my physical appearance, contributed to my mental well-being. It not only made me happy, but it created a core memory, a memory filled with beautiful faces, laughter, chatter, color, and a beautiful, smoky scent, and a memory that I can call on in times of sadness or loneliness. I can then revel in the times that I’ve spent with loved ones over a platter of delicious foods.

It’s cold outside as I write this, and we are entering another day at home due to inclement weather and icy roads in Texas. All I want are some tacos. I can’t have tacos though because the Jeep in my driveway isn’t four-wheel drive, and I, a Fort Worth native, am not equipped with the proper drifting maneuvers to safely drive my car to and from my mother’s house or a restaurant. Even if I could, nothing is open. So, in the name of safety and warmth, I settle. I settled for box-mix pancakes and leftovers. We didn’t prepare to be iced in, so I settled. But the icy mood had foodies all over Fort Worth craving something for the soul.

Photo courtesy of Eden Williams Photography

“Today, I’m craving Pho,” shared Fort Worth’s food experience expert Josie Singleton of the blog Eat This Fort Worth. “The biggest bowl of broth and noodles! I called Pho Hung today to see if they were open!” Alas, they were not open. “I love a good Pho on a cold day,” Josie says.

This Vietnamese soup was so unknown to me growing up but quickly became a household favorite in our Mexican family because it reminds me of family caldos that healed me when I was sick. It had miraculous properties that kept us warm on a cold day. An influx of serotonin immediately disperses throughout my body with the thought of a mother caring for her child — “chicken noodle soup for the soul” type of care. But instead of chicken, it’s oxtail soaking up the clearest bone broth with rice noodles and a hint of basil and jalapeño for spark. It’s happiness in a beautifully crafted bowl.

For Josie it’s ultimately the memories that food brings back. “I see it two ways: Food, as it’s related to mental health — you can seek out foods to bring you comfort and remind you of your childhood, remind you of special memories — but I also find that being in the kitchen with my kids, I’ve inadvertently created new memories,” Josie says.

Core memories. Memories that one can call on at any given point in time or that call upon you like déjà vu. Memories that are so intricately mixed with beans simmering in a clay pot every Sunday morning in the kitchen when Josie was a child. And now, incorporated into the cranberry white-chocolate cookies her 20-year-old son asks to make with her every holiday season. “Are we still doing that?” Josie laughs.

“It’s a way to connect with people — connection is one of the hallmarks of mental wellness,” Josie says. Engaging with those traditions not only connects her to her loved ones but also gives her something to look forward to and indulge in.

“Memory making, it’s what we all want,” she says.

It’s a way to connect with people — connection is one of the hallmarks of mental wellness.”

-JOSIE SINGLETON, of the blog Eat This Fort Worth

Photo courtesy of Josie Singleton

72 Comfort food is a term we all know but means something different to each of us. Texas comfort Connective and Impactful food comes in the form of a chicken-fried steak, biscuits in gravy, a decadent macaroni and cheese or even a simple grilled cheese sandwich. For self-proclaimed foodie and curator of @fortworthfavs on Instagram, Kali Messer, it’s a Mississippi Pot Roast. Throughout college, Kali worked at coffee shops and restaurants that quickly became her gateway to making new friends and building community. Social skills acquired during that time would have come in handy when she and her now husband relocated to the South Main District in Fort Worth, but it was at the beginning of the pandemic. “I needed friends out here, but with everything closed, it made it very difficult to be social,” Kali says. Kali quickly found community in her SoMa surroundings through connections she made with patrons alike looking for a social hour. Bars and restaurants slowly and safely began to open to help feed the community and ease people during one of the biggest health and mental health crises this generation has seen. Breaking bread with strangers became the cornerstone for Kali to get to know her new surroundings and helped curate a life full of people that initially started out as unknown patrons and quickly became lifelong friends.

“There’s one man, he’s German, I don’t want to peg his age, [and] never in a million years should I have been friends with this man, but he is the sweetest guy ever — he brings me coffee from Germany once a month,” Kali laughs. During a year where life was lonely and so much was unknown, the friendly faces that quickly welcomed two new out-of-towners is exactly why I preach an open table policy. There’s so much to gain when we all come together at the table and do life together, finding joy in shared meals. It’s why scenes with meals in the great works of literature and films often symbolize communion, which means “the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level.”

“A Mississippi Pot Roast — a lightly seared chuck roast, slow cooked in a crock pot with pepperoncinis, au jus and ranch mix packets — a salty, vinegar, savory dish — that’s my comfort,” Kali says.

The sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level.

-KALI MESSER, curator of @fortworthfavs

“I love the process. It makes me feel like a little kid,” Kali reminisces. “It’s like coloring a page just to color or making a friendship bracelet.” Kali compares her process of preparing this meal to the sweet creative process of a child and building memories that feel like home. “I don’t have a specific skill [for cooking], but I’ve built a home through this recipe, sharing it with friends and family alike and passing that joy unto others.”

Food has that characteristic to be personal and emotional, but it doesn’t always have to be. For some, mental wellness as it pertains to food may just be a successful meal prep week. Giving the satisfying illusion of “having your shit together.” It could also look like just what the doctor ordered, an apple a day. We all have these quirks that give us peace of mind and allow us to carry on throughout our days and weeks, feeling accomplished and put together. That’s OK. That method, too, is right. Food has the power to be connective and impactful in the most beautiful of ways, and what’s even more beautiful is just how a dish can be altered to suit its creator, the memory attached to it also shares a unique genetic code specific to its curator.

I don’t have a specific skill [for

cooking], but I’ve built a home through this recipe, sharing it with friends and family alike and passing that joy unto others.”

-KALI MESSER

Photo courtesy of Kali Messer